Mini-Review: I'm pretty sure there is a brilliant movie hiding in a bad one here. It brazenly illustrates the religiosity we all knew hid in films like Close Encounters and 2001, as well as Apocalypse-genre films. That it pisses off most everyone with its theological bait-and-switch is fucking fascinating.
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FLCL - Sep 03, 2009 |
Mini-Review: Show summary: punk-era Sogo Ishii raped Andy Warhol, shat a son, that son married Freud's mother, took crack and decided to rewrite Neon Genesis Evangelion. And that only scratches the surface of this surreal and ultimately hypnotic descent into the existential macabre, but one painted with bold primaries and Looney Tunes logic. There's even an extended South Park reference! and is therefore pure gold.
Mini-Review: Gangster Films 101: Guy does bad things, bad guy not so bad, bad guy falls for good woman, good woman makes bad guy become more humane and personable, good bad guy gets killed by bad good guys. Pathos. Gangster Films 130: Some good moments (read: gunfights), but Mann's digital camerawork detracts from character intimacy. Bale furrows his brow. Depp tries, Crudup succeeds. Audience looks bored despite body count.
Mini-Review: In his most strident political commentary since Planet of the Apes, Burton shows the folly of the current American Two Party system, and the malaise caused by the healthcare lobby through the Red Queen's associates. In quite an intertextual populist jibe, he mocks the jobless economic recovery by employing over 200 CGI animators to create even less character and life than 30 dudes with pencils in the 1950's.